PGA Asia berths at stake in meet

MANILA - With such a huge field fighting for a limited number of slots, action is expected to be fierce right in today’s start of the 72-hole PGT Asia Qualifying School at the Luisita Golf and Country Club in Tarlac.

Only the top 40-plus ties berths will be up for grabs for 132 players from at least 20 countries with the qualifiers joining the top 50 players from last year’s inaugural Philippine Golf Tour Asia Order of Merit and the top 30 from the local PGT OOM ranking.

ICTSI, which put up the region’s newest circuit late last year with an eight-leg circuit that culminated in the Centennial Philippine Open, has lined up 10 tournaments for the PGTA second season with more foreign players expected to join the tour which offers $100,000 prize fund per leg.

Tipped to crowd the early leaderboard are the Thai, Australian, Korean and American campaigners with the 30 local players also hard-pressed to dish out their best for the momentum and confidence needed in this kind of cutthroat competition.

They include Jun Bernis, Tonton Asistio, Rufino Bayron, Rico Depilo, Cookie La’O, Paul Echavez, Jama Reyes, Anthony Fernando, Jet Mathay, Robert Pactolerin and Rey Pagunsan, among others, all wanting to get a crack in the high-stakes tournaments firing off next week with the ICTSI Luisita Championship, also at the Tarlac layout.

Still, the likes of Thammanoon Sriroj, Nirun SaeUeng, Sattaya Supupramai and Ittiphat Buranatanyarat of Thailand, Aussies Clayton Bridges, Nathan Miller, Darren Beck and Sam Burrel, Koreans Park Min Ung and Lee Song, and Dylan Healey, Brett Munson, Josh Salah and John Jackson are expected to lord it over the field in the next four days.